"Spiders," observed Professor J.R.R. Tolkien, cradling the word with the same affection that he cradled the pipe in his hand, "are the particular terror of northern imaginations."

Discussing one of his own monsters, a man-devouring, spider-like female, he said, "The female monster is certainly no deadlier than the male, but she is different. She is a sucking, strangling, trapping creature."

"I never expected a money success," said Tolkien, pacing the room, as he does constantly when he speaks "in fact, I never even thought of commercial publication when I wrote THE HOBBIT back in the Thirties."